The Fractal R3 case will be OK, it has the advantage in most places of being somewhat cheaper than the other two. What you could consider is buying another Noctua PWM and installing this in the R3 as the exhaust fan using the motherboard CPU_OPT fan header. Noctua supply a fan extension cable with their PWM fans which will be needed to do this. The existing Fractal R3 exhaust fan could then be moved to the bottom position, or repositioned as an additional front intake. Rather than using the supplied Fractal hardware fan controller you could plug the Fractal fans into the motherboard chassis fan headers. Your motherboard supports Fan Xpert 2 which will give you a lot more options for three pin fan control. Using the Asus BIOS controls and/or Fan Xpert 2 you should then be able to balance fan noise against airflow and component/system temperatures. Running the CPU and exhaust fans as a linked pair works particularly well in gaming setups, it is easier to do because of your choice of motherboard and fans. It should give a quiet idle but increase airflow automatically under gaming stress to contain the GTX 670 temperatures and keep its cooler fan(s) from becoming too prominent.

I would go with Antec Solo II, but im biased as I own it. I would get new fans though, I didnt like the antec included even though its better than old antecs, Scythe SY1225SL12LM-P 120mm Case Fan. The only thing i wish antec would improve in the a new version is the cable management, very little room to route, in my case i only routed case fans and front panel conectors, the 24pin be routed behind the hdd cage... and the 8pin cpu can be routed paralel to the mobo below the psu... but ths could easy been improved if antec increases the space on the back.... still not that bad, just could been better. My second choice would be the 550D, mostly out of looks, to me looks better than solo and r3, but i dont own it to know for sure. Niether of the SPCR reviews got a editors choice, but all 3 seems like really god cases.

I bought R3 as it was quite cheap, it does everything quite well, no big problems. It is easy to build silent PC with R3. My system now has 2 moving parts: one CPU fan and one case fan. The rest is passively cooled and I use SSD. Radeon 4770 and [email protected],7GHz stay very cool in heavy load. I can recommend the case. The build quality should be enough for all possible uses.

I have a strong preference for bottom mounted PSU's. The Antec P280 is on sale right now at NewEgg and has a lot more room than the Solo II. Seems to have similar SECC / polycarbonate side panels to keep the noise down:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129179

What case would best fit my needs? Are all the above cases ready for HD suspension if they even need it? which would be the most quiet where HD noise/vibration is concerned. Currently I have no vibration whatsoever, and the only noise coming from my case is airflow.

Now on to another topic. With my previous rig I had freezes with vertical lines or white screens. I thought since I ran the board at it's max with 4 sticks of RAM it might had something to do with but with my new upgrade I experience the same, only less regularly.I cannot even run the RAM at tested speeds (1600 instead of 1333) or my rig starts crashing.One thing I have noticed before and after my upgrade is a squeaking noise coming from the PCI-e connector on my GFX card.Since my PSU doesn't have a dedicated line for PCI-e it's connected via 2 molex to PCI-e plug. there might even be a HDD connected in between.Could this be the reason of my problems? PSU failing, not providing enough juicy or not having a dedicated PCI-e line?

For some time, I have been searching for a case for a quiet office PC. Not so easy.

I have doubts about the quality of R3 cases, too; in fact, about the quality of most other cases as well, which these days tend to look downright chintzy. I want a solid, quiet, no-BS, utilitarian case. Why is that so hard to find? Dumbed-down aesthetics? Price margins?

The Solo II seems best for my purposes, but the glossy black piano finish, placement of front panel USB, and cable management are significant design errors.

Since I want to install a front panel hard drive/SSD power switch with up to six cables (up to five HDDs/SSDs, one Blu-Ray drive), the P280, with its superior cable management, should be the better choice, but it's also a few sizes too large for a fairly rudimentary build using the on-board graphics of an Ivy Bridge processor. On the other hand, up to five HDDs, a card reader, the BR drive, and the power switch puts the build into a class beyond a simple office PC.

Moreover, the P280 has a door, making it less easy to use the power switch, and I would probably end up replacing the Antec-supplied fans with quieter ones, adding to expense.

I would welcome a mini-version of the P280, but nothing of that kind seems to be heading our way.

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